Mediterranean Style Remodel in Upland, CA
This beautiful Tuscan/Mediterranean home and outdoor living space showcases Cabernet tumbled real thin stone veneer.
Deciding to Remodel
Our homeowners regularly host parties to bring together their family of five adult children and two grandchildren. They often have their grandchildren over for sleepovers, plan pool parties, and watch football together on Sundays. With their home turning 40 and as the central gathering place of their family, our homeowners decided it was time for an exterior facelift.
The Vision
The exterior renovation included a plan to update the look of the semi-custom home with a stone veneer. The desired look would enhance the home's Mediterranean style construction, appearance, and feel, yet appear as if it was built in this manner many years ago.
After visiting Europe several times, our homeowners fell in love with the old-world charm of stone-built homes found in the cities and towns of Italy, Croatia, and Greece where the primary building material was the abundance of local quarried stone of that era. With its orange tile roof, arch entryway, and stucco finish, our homeowners wanted their home to showcase the Tuscan/Mediterranean style they had fallen in love with in Europe.
The project included a complete front and back remodel of the exterior of the home, the planter and walkway hardscape, and the pool and deck. Vintage/old-world stone veneer would be applied to a substantial portion of the home’s front-facing elevation, the newly constructed front walkway pilasters, and courtyard walls, the newly constructed backyard outdoor kitchen, fire table, and fire pit, pool feature columns, rear fountain wall, and rear patio columns.
Selecting the Stone
Our homeowners choose natural stone veneer for its lasting beauty, natural look, and relatively low weight when compared to the other natural stone options. They had seen manufactured stone used over the years in surrounding neighborhoods and were not satisfied with the appearance and longevity of the color. As for the stack-stone option, the precision manufacturing felt unnatural in structure and strayed from the authentic stone building one finds in the older areas of Europe.
While doing research, it quickly became clear to our homeowners that Quarry Mill not only has access to some of the best rock quarries with the most beautiful stone but its fabrication process carefully reveals the beauty and structure of the stone. They appreciated the quarry stone selection standards and fabricating process in that it truly achieves an authentic, natural stone veneer. The thin veneer appears stout and very heavy, yet is milled to thin tolerances that enable a practical application experience for the contractor, all without compromising its structural integrity.
Choosing Cabernet
After considering scores of stone veneer options by numerous stone fabricators, our homeowners kept returning to the exquisite look of Quarry Mill’s Cabernet Fieldledge stone veneer. The mosaic/ashlar blended product provided the perfect authentic, locally-quarried stone they were striving for.
Cabernet was chosen for its beauty, tumbled appearance, and relatively lightweight and ease of application when compared to its full stone veneer counterparts.
About Cabernet
Cabernet is a tumbled real stone veneer in shades of earthy browns. The stone has unusually rich and deep tones of brown, gold, and some rust tones. It is classified as a fieldledge style as it has some semi-irregular pieces but can be installed in a more linear ashlar-style pattern. The thin stone has a relatively smooth texture with occasional ripples on the faces of the individual pieces.
Completing the Remodel
The centerpiece of our homeowner's front yard is their remodeled courtyard. The Cabernet stone, cobbled pavers, bubbling fountain, and potted flowering plants make it a naturally relaxing and welcoming gathering area where they can enjoy their morning espressos as well as evening wine and cocktails. The Cabernet stone selection enabled them to realize the vintage look of old-world Europe while supporting the utility of their home’s open spaces.
Our homeowner applied the Cabernet to his home’s stucco wall finish in several areas. Our sales member, Brandon Small, was instrumental in providing guidance on the preparation and application process of Quarry Mill’s product. With Brandon’s help and our homeowner's own online research, he determined that the best way to ensure the long-lasting application of the veneer product was to first power-wash the painted surfaces, followed by scarring the surface with a diamond wheel, applying a high-quality bonding agent directly to the wall surface, and using a binding mortar for the stone.
Finished Project
Our homeowners' favorite thing about their finished project is how incredibly well the Quarry Mill Cabernet stone melded with the other design elements to produce an exquisite, beautiful Tuscan/Mediterranean appearance and feel for their home. The Tuscan ethos of the remodel flows consistently from the front entryway through the home and into the backyard.
The semi-custom home was built by a local, well-known home builder. As such, the house design theme is common to all of the homes in the neighborhood. With our homeowners' vision and Quarry Mill’s Cabernet stone, they were able to set their house apart from others with beautiful, natural, and old-world charm that attracts looks and compliments from their neighbors and passersby, alike.
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